What functionality do patients want from an Electronic Clinical Record (ECR)

Objectives: Within an adult unit where ECR was implemented in 2007, coding for all aspects of CF care, we sought to evaluate which aspects of ECR functionality patients would value, in order to prioritise and facilitate development of an integrated system for patient access. Methods: Patients were asked to rank their views across 3 areas; ECR functionality they valued; preferences for access to their ECR; information they would like to send to their ECR. Each question was classified as very important (1); important (2); quite important (3); ordinary (4); not important (5); very unimportant (6). Differences between categories were analysed using Chi2 [significant (p < 0.05*) and highly significant (p < 0.001**)]. Results: A questionnaire was completed by 160 patients, age 29.6 (±9.6) years. Conclusion: Access to physiological data, weight and medications was most important for patients. The ability to send prescription/reatment requests, advanced directives and intentions for organ donation were also high priority. Access to on-line health information was less important. These results underpin the implementation of patient access to their ECR and the on-line tracking of prescription data.